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Books I've written or contributed to

Finding Livelihood: A Progress of Work and Leisure is forthcoming from Kalos Press in 2015.

Just Think hopes to meet the reader at the place of spiritual longing. Spiritual longing can take many forms: a wish for meaning, a yearning for purpose and significance, a need for affirmation and assurance, an inner loneliness, an attraction to joy or beauty, a hunger for God. Most people don’t look to their minds to help them satisfy the longing they feel, however. Thinking, the activity of the mind, is typically associated either with academic pursuits or strategies to succeed or be clever. It is seldom considered in terms of its association with the life of the soul. Yet the association is strong. Ideas and insights are just some of the prizes of thinking that overflow the cognitive perimeter to wash over and flood the soul with vitality. Questions and searches deepen the soul. Knowledge invites the soul to join the mind in actions of service and belief. In prayer, mind and soul unite to participate in mystery. Through attentiveness, study, and contemplation, God is recognized and known, swelling both mind and soul with life. With thinking as spiritual practice, mind meets soul and both are bound together.

Download a free journal/study guide here from my website. Scroll down the right margin about half way. Perfect for a book group.

My essay, "Things that Fall and Things that Stand" is part of this anthology edited by Leslie Leyland Fields and published by Cascade Press in 2010, The Spirit of Food: 34 Writers on Feasting and Fasting Toward God.

In addition to essays, the book is also a collection of recipes, one from each contributor. Among the recipes: tangy, glazed pork roast; sweet raisin challah; Jacmel jambalaya; cilantro citrus Hollandaise; one-pot paprikas chicken; Swedish pancakes with lingonberry sauce; chicken wat; and mac & cheese for grown-ups. My essay is about making my grandmother's Swedish pancakes and the aftermath of the fall of the Interstate 35 bridge here in Minneapolis in 2007.

My essay "Ontology," originally published in Harpur Palate, has been anthologized in Becoming: What Makes A Woman edited by Jill McCabe Johnson (University of Nebraska Gender Programs, 2012).

“Becoming: What Makes a Woman" brings to life those remarkable moments, large and small, that transform an individual, steering us toward the lives we were meant to lead. An astonishing array of gifted writers explore intimacy, doubt, love, joy, and sorrow to form this exhilarating anthology. A rich and wonderful read.”–Dinty W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life

“Beautifully conceived and organized, this collection unfolds much the way a woman’s life reveals itself: slowly, gently, and sometimes painfully nudging our way into wisdom.”–Brenda Miller, author of Season of the Body and Listening Against the Stone

Aiming at the intersections of thought, faith, imagination, and beauty in everyday life.

Established 2004

"Thou takest the pen – and the lines dance. Thou takest the flute – and the notes shimmer. Thou takes the brush – and the colors sing. So all things have meaning and beauty in that space beyond where Thou art. How, then, can I hold anything back from Thee."
–Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings

By day I'm a medical writer. After hours I do another kind of work. Creative writing, spiritual writing, essaying. This blog arises from those after hours. I write about work/vocation, meaning, hope, imagination, faith, science, creativity/writing, books, and anything else I feel the impulse to write about. I hope these short posts provide camaraderie for your own creative and spiritual life.